I have an idea for an e-commerce site and am wondering if you fastlaners have any advice on gauging the market....
My question is about measuring the market because I am going to put it on "pre-order" for a month and see what traffic numbers I get.
How should I market it to minimize costs and maximize pre-orders?
Quickest way to test the market:
1. Setup the site quickly. Doesn't have to be super cool or fancy, and definitely doesn't have to have hundreds of products - just a few as part of the test. The key point is speed. Once you get use to the process it shouldn't take longer than a day to do this. Don't bother with blogging or any other sort of "busy work" at this stage. Use a platform like Shopify or Volusion - they usually give the first 30 days free trial, so it's all setup for you, and it's free for the purpose of your test.
2. Setup the checkout section on the site to lead to a "Sorry We Are Revamping Our Services Right Now" type message. This kicks in just before the "enter payment details" section (so you never take their payment info), and you just leave a space for them to enter their name and email address, and a message encouraging them to enter their details so they will be "notified the moment the system is back up", or something along those lines.
3. Run a PPC campaign on your target keywords, and try to drive a few hundred visitors to the site (need a few to get a good sampling of the market - Stats 101
4. See how many visitors you get, how engaged they are with the site, and most importantly, how many emails/sign ups you got, which is a HUGE indicator of how hungry the market is for the product.
Should take you a day or two to setup the site, and the PPC campaign will probably run for about 2 weeks, depending on your campaign/keywords/budget. You don't need to invest in product you aren't even sure you'll sell, so your only expense - a couple days of setup and your PPC budget, which shouldn't cost more than $500.
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